ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Continuing Education Opportunities

The following continuing education activities have been listed with ACRL’s Continuing Education Clearinghouse. If your organization is sponsoring an activity that you think may be of interest to ACRL members, please send the pertinent details to the ACRL Office, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.

July

25-28; 30-Aug. 2—Statistics: Statistical Methods for Professional Librarians: Workshop I — “Simple Statistical Methodologies”; Workshop II—“Statistical Analysis of Library Data Using SPSS,” Department of Conferences and the Library School, University of Minnesota. Contact: John S. Vollum, Program Director, Department of Conferences, 222 Nolte Center, 315 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455; (612) 373-3157.

August

5-11—Management: “Executive Development Program for Library Administrators,” Seminar, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Fee: $295.

Contact: Harry Brooks, Director, Center for Management Services, School of Business Administration, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056; (513) 529-4129.

6-17—Federal Libraries: “Federal Library Resources,” Institute, Graduate Department of Library and Information Science, Catholic University, Washington, D.C.

Contact: Graduate Department of Library and Information Science, Catholic University, Washington, DC 20064.

13-16—Data Bases: System—SDC/ORBIT, Files—GEOREF, PAPERCHEM, ERIC, On- Line Bibliographic and Information Systems, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fee: $150.

Contact: Professor Allen Kent, Room 801, Library and Information Sciences Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; (412) 624-5218.

15-17—Management: “Assertiveness Training for Managers,” Center for Management Development, Seminar, College of Business and Management, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. Fee: $455.

Contact: Center for Management Development, above address.

September

17-20—Data Bases: System—BRS, Files—PSY ABS, NTIS, INSPEC, On-Line Bibliographic and Information Systems, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fee: $150.

Contact: Professor Allen Kent, Room 801, Library and Information Sciences Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; (412) 624-5218.

27-28—Technology: “Technology and Services in Academic Libraries: Past and Future,” Symposium, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.

Contact: Library Symposium, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834; (919) 757-6514.

27-30—Statistics: “Statistical Methods for Professional Librarians,” Workshop, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Rutgers University and Continuing Education and Extension, University of Minnesota, Continuing Education Center, Rutgers University, Douglass Campus, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Contact: Jana Varlejs, Director, Professional Development Studies, Rutgers GSLIS, 4 Huntington St., New Brunswick, NJ 08903.

October

4-6—Space Planning: “Space Planning and Practical Design for Librarians,” Workshop, Northwestern University and Chicago Association of Law Libraries Library Management and Planning Group, Dallas Hilton, Dallas, Texas. Fee: $200.

Contact: Aaron Cohen Associates, Teatown Rd., Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520. ■■

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL DRAFTED FOR NATIONAL

periodicals center

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) has approved in principle a draft legislative proposal for the creation of a National Periodicals Center (NPC). The commission, meeting in Chicago May 17-18, approved the draft as a vehicle for discussion of NPC at library and trade association meetings this summer.

The draft legislative proposal provides for the creation of a semiautonomous, government- supported NPC corporation. This corporation would maintain a collection of periodicals to be used for duplicating and delivering documents on demand. It would contract with other agencies or institutions to provide requested documents not in its own collection.

Discussion and testimony at the May 18 NCLIS meeting made clear that key NPC issues have not been resolved. One such issue centers on the definition and size of the collection NPC would maintain. Suzanne Frankie of the Association of Research Libraries suggested to the NCLIS commissioners that NPC should have its own “dedicated” collection of 60,000 titles and oversee a larger “comprehensive” collection of titles held by other institutions.

Carol Risher, representing the Association of American Publishers (AAP), expressed the view that NPC’s “dedicated” collection should not duplicate already existing resources and delivery services. According to Risher, most AAP member presses already provide reprints, and she suggested that technology is rapidly creating the basis for an efficient decentralized delivery system. The Bowker Company, she said, is putting Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory on-line. Ulrich’s could be used as a finding list for information on the availability of reprints or copies of articles in 100,000 or more periodicals. Existing technology would permit a quick search of the data base to locate an item, and an electronic message delivery system might be used to create an order. Risher advised that the NPC should itself collect only those titles unavailable elsewhere.

The commission faced the question of how far to go in setting forth detailed operating specifications for NPC. Ernest Campbell, Center for Research Libraries board chair, urged the commission to focus its efforts on obtaining broad enabling legislation for the center and allow the center’s future managers to work out the details of its operations.

A representative of the Information Industry Association warned the commission against presenting to Congress a plan that did not specify what the costs of the system would be, whether it would be centralized or decentralized, and whether it would supplement or supplant existing services.

The commission concluded that further study is necessary to flesh out the details of the NPC proposal. It authorized its Research Committee, headed by Carlos Cuadros, to study the probable costs and functions of NPC, the role of the private sector, the impact of new technology, and the timetable for implementation.

At its meetings in July and September, the commission will consider the reactions of other organizations to the draft legislative proposal and the results of its Research Committee’s work. ■■